The Future of Breeding Vegetables with Human Health Functionality: Realities, Challenges, and Opportunities

Crops have been important to humankind for purposes other than simply sustaining life through calories and nutrients. Many of the earliest domesticates served multiple purposes besides food (Meyer et al., 2012), including providing for shelter, textile, medicinal, or spiritual needs. In some cases, medicinal uses may have preceded their use as food crops (Rubatzky and Yamaguchi, 1997; Smartt and Simmonds, 1995). However, during the latter half of the 20th century, and particularly in the United States, healthcare practitioners and the general public moved away from food-based remedies and toward synthetic medicine (Lawson, 1998). Synthetic monomolecular drugs became synonymous with modern medicine in many parts of the developed world, leading to tremendous gains in public health. However, the departure from plant-based remedies was accompanied by a loss of knowledge about their uses and efficacy (Goldman, 2003; Janick, 2003). Onion (Allium cepa L.), garlic (Allium sativum L.), and other members of the cultivated Alliaceae are excellent examples of this historical fact, because they have been used to flavor food, as vegetables themselves, and as medicinal plants since their domestication more than 5000 years ago (Block, 2010). Depictions of Egyptians harvesting Alliaceae vegetables in wall paintings exist from antiquity. Use of garlic bulbs in ancient burial practices in Egypt have also been well documented (Block, 2010) because of the widespread belief of the importance of these plants for health and well-being in the afterlife. Numerous representations of onion and garlic in art and culture exist through modern times such as the widespread use of Alliaceae-based poultices in Europe or the appearance of leeks on Welsh coinage. Shortages of onion in India have led to street protests (Nolen, 2011). These examples suggest that vegetable Alliums are important additions to cuisine not only because of the flavor they impart to food, or their inherent qualities as vegetables themselves, but also because of their potential health value. If, however, humans have imparted such health value to these plants, why then does the modern pharmacy contain primarily synthetic monomolecular pharmaceuticals? Although marketers have promoted fruits, vegetables, grains, nuts, herbs, and other crops as having value-added health characteristics, sufficient confusion and misinformation in this marketplace over the past 20 years have added to the complexity of understanding the role of these commodities in improving human health. More than simply a public relations problem for vegetables, this situation hints at some of the deeper and more complex aspects of the connection between crops and health functionality.